


And So It Goes

by POstable (cajungirlkye)



Category: Signed Sealed Delivered (TV)
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 17:31:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9559727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cajungirlkye/pseuds/POstable
Summary: After a few months of dating, Oliver asks Shane to dance with him in the DLO.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was sitting in my Google Drive, so I decided to go ahead & post it.
> 
> Shane & Oliver unfortunately still don't belong to me.
> 
> Song lyrics belong to Billy Joel.

Shane McInerney stretched as she sat at her floating workstation in the Denver DLO patiently waiting for the search that was running on her computer to finish.  She checked her watch. _8 PM. Wow, it’s getting late._ She snuck a glance at Oliver O’Toole, her colleague/boss/new beau, who was seated at his desk filling out some paperwork for Becky, Shane’s friend and head of Special Projects for the USPS in Washington, DC.

Oliver’s jacket was off, his tie was loosened, he had a faint 5 o’clock shadow, and his hair was slightly sticking up from where he had been absentmindedly running his hands through it. Shane secretly adored him like this - partially unkempt, so unlike his usual perfectly put-together self. Shane smiled.  Ever since she and Oliver had started officially dating he had seemed a bit more relaxed, especially if just he & Shane were in the DLO together.

“Did you need something?”

Shane startled and blushed. Oliver was smirking at her, having caught her staring at him. “Just waiting for this search to run,” she replied then stood up. “This looks like it’s going to take a while and it’s getting late. I think I’m going to call it a night.”

“I believe I will too,” Oliver replied. “The rest of this paperwork can wait until morning.” He cleared his throat.

Oliver opened his mouth like he was going to say something, hesitated, then finally seemed to come to a decision. “Would you like to accompany me to dinner this evening? I know we usually dine out on Saturdays, but since it is late and neither of us have had dinner yet I thought we could grab a bite to eat together."

Shane smiled warmly. "I would love to."

"Great! Perhaps we could go to Donatello's? We can see how Mr. & Mrs. Castelluci are doing."

"That sounds wonderful, Oliver."

Oliver fixed his hair and tie as Shane straightened her workstation. She watched curiously as Oliver walked over to the ancient record player. "Before we go... Dance with me?" he asked, hand outstretched.

Shane laughed when "And So It Goes" began playing. "I can't believe this song is still on the record player," she replied while reaching to take his offered hand.

"Well, to be quite honest, I listen to it on occasion when I am here alone. It is quite a lovely song, actually. I've found it to be... enlightening."

Shane smiled as Oliver led her in the familiar steps. Every time they danced together there seemed to be this buzz about them, as if their chemistry was almost physically manifested.

_In every heart there is a room_   
_A sanctuary safe and strong_   
_To heal the wounds from lovers past_ _  
Until a new one comes along_

_We’ve finally made it,_ Shane thought.  Oliver’s divorce from Holly had been finalized a few weeks before Valentine’s Day.  

Then there was the whole Dale debacle. _Oliver definitely had a type,_ Shane thought. The police officer shared the same red hair as Holly, which had thrown Shane right back into the insecurity she had felt when Holly had briefly returned to Denver from Paris.  She and Dale had come to a silent but mutual understanding when Oliver and his father Joe had gotten lost in the mountains after Joe was injured while they were camping, and had become friends.

Once they were rescued and Oliver had make sure Joe would be ok, he had located Shane in the hospital chapel, where he had finally made his intentions toward her clear.  They had been dating for a few months now - They had a date every Saturday and many evenings after work had spent holding hands on Shane’s porch swing that Oliver had gifted her for her birthday.

_I spoke to you in cautious tones_   
_You answered me with no pretense_   
_And still I feel I said too much_ _  
My silence is my self-defense_

Shane thought back to the last time she & Oliver had danced to this song in the DLO. Shane had felt the chemistry between them, and she suspected Oliver had too. However, Oliver still had had hopes of fixing his marriage, so Shane did what she thought was best - looking up Holly's address so Oliver could get some closure. That had backfired spectacularly, so Shane backed off and did what she could to support Oliver from afar.

_And every time I've held a rose_   
_It seems I only felt the thorns_   
_And so it goes, and so it goes_ _  
And so will you soon I suppose_

Shane's relationship with Steve had been strained from the beginning.  In the time they dated, Shane never felt as close to Steve as she wished, with his work for the Department of Defense requiring him to be secretive and taking him away what seemed like almost constantly. He would always hold a special place in Shane's heart as a friend, but that's all he would ever be.  

The night Shane saw Oliver and Holly kiss at the Mailbox Grille, her heart broke. She was fully prepared to leave the USPS and Denver forever, until she arrived home to find Oliver installing a swing on her porch at 2 AM.

_But if my silence made you leave_   
_Then that would be my worst mistake_   
_So I will share this room with you_ _  
And you can have this heart to break_

Only one man held Shane’s heart completely, and that was the man with whom she was currently dancing. Over the course of the past several years, Oliver had slowly melted the ice around her heart while she filled in the cracks in his. They had been to hell and back, but had come out stronger together than than apart.

Oliver was always showing her he cared - be it by bringing her coffee in the morning, making sure she got home safely from work, actually acquiring a cell phone after being lost in the mountains for three days,  purchasing a porch swing and installing it at 2 AM, purchasing the property her childhood home had sat on after seeing how upset Shane had been to find it torn down (which she still couldn’t believe), or by the greatest gift he had ever given her - trusting her with his heart.

_And this is why my eyes are closed_   
_It's just as well for all I've seen_   
_And so it goes, and so it goes_ _  
And you're the only one who knows_

"Penny for your thoughts?" Oliver interrupted her musings.

"Oh, just thinking about the past few years," Shane replied. "Strange how things have changed so much since I started working for the DLO. Just a couple of years ago I was still in DC with Steve, and you were here, waiting for..." she paused. "Waiting for Holly."

_So I would choose to be with you_   
_That's if the choice were mine to make_   
_But you can make decisions too_ _  
And you can have this heart to break_

Oliver took a deep breath. "This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange that even our loves should with our fortunes change," he said, then dipped her.

As Oliver brought her out of the dip and their eyes locked, Shane realized the magnitude of his statement.

_Did he just mean what I think he means?_

"Oliver?" she said questioningly. Her heart raced as Oliver caressed her cheek.

"I love you, Shane," he whispered back as he slowly lowered his lips to hers.

Shane had had first kisses in her lifetime, but none had ever compared to the one she was sharing right in that moment with Oliver. She could almost swear they were floating. “I love you too, Oliver,” Shane replied breathlessly as Oliver pulled her into his arms and caressed her hair.

After a few moments, Oliver pulled back and flashed her a shy smile. "Shall we dine, Miss McInerney?"

Shane smiled back. "Yes, let's... Mr. O'Toole."

They walked out into the warm evening, hand in hand, the sunset reminiscent of a new chapter in their lives.

_And so it goes, and so it goes  
And you're the only one who knows _


End file.
